Average BMI in Ireland
Men in Ireland have an average BMI of 28.1, women 27.2. Both means fall in the WHO overweight band for men and overweight for women. That puts Ireland 33rd of 186 countries in our data, ranked from highest BMI to lowest.
Key numbers
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Estimated share in each WHO category
Columns may not sum to 100 because of rounding. Real BMI distributions have a longer right tail than a normal curve, so the obese share here is probably a few points low.
Ireland among its neighbours
What a given BMI means in Ireland
Read it as: a man with BMI 30 in Ireland has a higher BMI than 64% of men. Values under 1% or over 99% are shown as <1 and >99.
In plain language
The standard deviation for men in Ireland is 5.5. About two thirds of men have a BMI between 22.6 and 33.6; for women the middle two thirds run from 21.0 to 33.4. Compared with the global mean, men here are 3.6 points higher and women 2.4 points higher.
BMI does not distinguish muscle from fat, and the WHO bands were set on European populations. For South and East Asian populations the same BMI carries more health risk, which is why several countries there use 23 and 27.5 as their own cut-offs.
Questions
- What is the average BMI in Ireland?
- 28.1 for men and 27.2 for women, with standard deviations of 5.5 and 6.2. Averaged across the sexes that is 27.6, against a global figure of 24.6.
- What share of adults in Ireland are overweight or obese?
- Our estimate from the mean and SD: 71% of men have a BMI of 25 or more, and 36% are at 30 or more. For women it is 64% and 33%. These assume a normal curve, so the true obesity shares are likely a few points higher.
- Is a BMI of 25 high in Ireland?
- A BMI of 25 is the WHO line between healthy weight and overweight. In Ireland it is higher than about 29% of men and 36% of women. So for men here it is below the middle of the pack.
- How does Ireland compare with El Salvador?
- Men in El Salvador average 27.0 against 28.1 in Ireland; women 28.5 against 27.2. El Salvador ranks 32nd, Ireland 33rd.
NCD-RisC does not publish standard deviations. SD for countries added in 2026-10 uses the global SD. Ireland is one of them, so the SD, the category shares and the percentiles above use the global spread rather than one measured here.
Source: NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, Lancet 2017, age-standardised mean BMI for 2016. Percentiles on this page are our estimate from a normal distribution with the stated mean and SD.
Enter your height and weight and see your BMI percentile among men or women in Ireland.
Check your BMI against IrelandAlso by country: Average height by country and Life expectancy by country.